RUPERT MURDOCH: LAUGH OUT LOUD

I read this morning that Rupert Murdoch, that peerless example of unbiased journalism, is planning a New York edition of the Wall Street Journal as an antidote to the biased reporting and "political agenda" of the New York Times. So soon we will have the Gotham Wars as these two publications square off in the Battle of New York.

Robert Thomson, the Managing Editor of the WSJ, pontificated in an editorial about the biased reporting and political slanting of the Times, to which the Times retorted that they welcomed the competition and pointed out for the WSJ that a few things had changed in the Big Apple---like the Dodgers and Giants had moved west, that Soho stood for South Houston and a few other changes.

I find it vastly amusing---and hypocritical---to see Rupert Murdoch and his henchmen play the role of unbiased reporters. If ever anyone had an agenda, Rupert Murdoch is the prime example of slanted journalism, in words and talk. His conservative agenda is first and foremost in anything he does, from Fox News on television to his newspapers.

Let the games begin! This should make for a fascinating display of verbal artillery shells raining down on us readers! The Conservative and Liberal armies will be in full array.

WANTED: A THINKING MAN IN THE N.F.L. (OR ANY SPORT)

Required reading for any thinking (or even non-thinking) sports lover: Clay Travis ' "The Scarlet I" on AOL Sports regarding the idiots in the N.F.L. who for the most part neglected the promise and potential of Myron Rolle, Rhodes Scholar and N.F.L. candidate. It is an acerbic commentary on the lame brains of the N.F.L. (or the greedy owners who don't want theit jocks with too much mental firepower).

The dumbing down of education has been a concern for many for some years. Here is a golden opportunity for a young man with brains---and football talent---who loves the game and wants to play but is also interested in a medical and even a future political career to show his stuff.

Funny, I always thought brains were an asset.

It would make great required reading for Ben Roethlisberger during his suspension.

THAT MAGNIFICENT MAN ON A FLYING MACHINE

My wife and I had a great experience yesterday: the director of the church choir in which I sing took us and another church member to Ellenton, Florida, near Sarasota on the west coast of Florida, for an incredible musical experience. Outside Elllenton, in a pizza/fast food emporium called "Roaring 20s, Pizza and Pipes" is a magnificent oldtime Wurlitzer Organ originally built in 1931 and installed in the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California. After the Paramount closed in 1995, a musical museum located in Germany bought it, but plans never materialized and the deal fell through. "Roaring 20" then purchased and installed it in their restaurant.

It is magnificent, the last in a series of 17 built for big movie houses with 4 manuals (keyboards), 20 ranks (sets) of pipes in Art Deco style with floral motifs on the sides and waterfall cap pieces on the top. In 1978 the color was changes from gold to ebony with the Art Deco motifs highlighted in gold, silver, bronze and copper.

A 20 horsepower Spencer Blower supplies air for the 2456 organ pipes whuch are over 26 miles in total pipe length. The largest pipe is 16', 14"; the smallest, the size of a pencil. It has 350 controls and 279 tabs and weighs over 31,250 pounds! All kinds of percussion sounds are available, including a marimba, tuned sleigh bells,piano, drums and trap---it is a one-man orchestra!

We arrived at 12:20 p.m., just in time to order our lunch (great spare ribs, and I understand the pizza is also fabulous) and to find benches and a table. Promptly at 12:30, to the sound of a blasting fanfare, the mighty instrument rose from a pit, like Neptune from the sea, exposing the organist/one-man band member, playing his heart out, hands and feets flying on pedals, stops, tabs and controls in a coordinated frenzy of dexterity. Two organists, Bill Vlasak, originally from Columbus, Ohio, and Dwight Thomas, a Buckeye from Marysville, Ohio are the two organists. We saw Dwight Thomas---and he is terrific. He ran through a very popular repetoire, ranging from "Phantom of the Opera" to "When the Saints Come Marching in". He puts a basket at the head of his platform facing the audience so that people can put 3X5 cards with requests in the basket.

I hear that the economy is taking its toll even on "the Roaring 20s", so I don't know how long this musical extravaganza will endure. if you have occasion to be on the west coast of Florida, I highly recommend that you make the trip to Ellenton and "Roaring 20s" for a moving remembrance of things past in this magnificent machine. It is well worth the trip.

LEST WE FORGET

I note in the news today that Timothy J. McVeigh, the Oklahome City bomber of fifteen years ago, made tapes while imprisoned prior to his execution with a journalist he trusted, Lou Michel, who has co-authored "American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing", 45 hours of which were shared with MSNBC and to be shown on MSNBC as "The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist". I reckon they are truly chilling as he in a plain-spoken, matter-of-fact and unrepentant manner recounts his tale.

I hope that enough sane people watch it to recognize what a danger such psychopaths are in today's tumultuous hate-filled times. I hope and pray that the extreme right-wing nut cases don't become inspired by it. So many of these crazies believe that any action, including shedding blood, is justified in the name of their perverse interpretation of liberty and, like McVeigh (and so many Muslim terrorists), are willing to accept martyrdom. It is in precarious economic times like today that such extremists are spawned.

I find it frightening and a real danger. "These are the times that try men's souls."

FORTUNE FAVORS THE 500

The latest Fortune report of the top 500 companies in America has just been released. The top ten holds only a few surprises. That behemoth of retailing, Wal-Mart replaced Exxon Mobile as #1 in sales this year and by a sizeable margin, over 408 billion to 284 billion, although Exxon Mobil’s profit is higher than Wal-Mart, over 19 bill to14 bill. I really don’t care for #1 at all: their predatory methods irritate me as they eliminate and strangle small businesses, pressure and bully their suppliers and offer notoriously low pay and benefits to their employees (pardon me, associates), although they are increasing their pay and health benefits under a new C.E.O. who is image-conscious.

One of the shockers on the list---but not really in terms of the cataclysmic economic events of the last year or two---, Ford, #8 in the standings, is a good bit bigger than General Motors, #15, 123 bill to 104 bill! Who would have thunk it? Just a few years ago, Ford was on its heels, way behind the juggernaut called GM.

I’m not surprised that two banks are in the top ten: Bank of America, #5, at 150 bill and J.P.Morgan Chase, #9, at 115 bill. A few years ago, I would have bet that we would end up with ten banks in the world with the then merger-mania, but in today’s environment of financial reform, it’s not so likely.

No surprise that three oil companies, always high profit grinders, are right up there: after Exxon Mobil, #2, come Chevron, #3, at163 bill and Conoco Phillips, #5, at 139 bill. Not exactly shocking that three oil companies are in the top five.

GE, #4 at 156 bill, AT &T , #7, at 123 bill and Hewlitt Packard (HP), #10, at 114 bill round out the top ten, as they have always been major players in their respective fields.

Just nosed out of the top ten is Berkshire Hathaway, #11, created by the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, and his special baby is thriving.. And to think he still lives in that modest house in Omaha---what a guy! Who says free enterprise is dying?

Sales are better; profits are up. Now if we can just see it reflected in jobs! Maybe if our political parties would put their heads and brains together, we might even see that improve. Why are there always fewer brains than heads?

PANDORA'S COMMUNICATIONS BOX

I note in an online article that deep concerns are being raised in Britain about the lack of a panic button on Facebook. By panic button, they don't mean an alarm but simply a way to control objectionable input that some users may receive; i.e., kids being sexually harassed or abused verbally, for example.

Many wonderful doors are opened by the internet, which has significantly changed the way we communicate. It has been an incredible revolution in an amazingly short time. When I retired in 1995, I had learned to use a computer in business, especially basic Dos applications for sales analysis, but the internet was basically used by a select few in the scientific world, but we all know how it exploded shortly thereafter. It can be a wonderful tool---but it can also be dangerous.

One of the scary aspects of the new communications world of Facebook, Twitter and the like is that it opens up a new way for weasels of all sorts to invade our privacy. I know that you can protect private information yourself to some degree, but a lot of technologically savvy predators can find ways to creep into our lives.

I said in a recent blog that my reason for not partaking of Facebook and Twitter et al. is that I don't want or need 500 new friends. I also like my privacy, and the prospect of intruders entering my life via computer is repugnant to me. It's bad enough with all the phishers on the net without having more scamsters and con men lurking around the new communicative tools.

Yes, it is a great tool, this new form of information and communication; it is also Pandora's box, and it can be frightening on occasions when you open the lid.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, JOE DIMAGGIO

It has been quite a week in sports news, especially at the Masters and with the Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger.

First, the Masters. It's wonderful to see someone defy Leo Durocher's famous line that "nice guys finish last", case in point being Phil Mickelson winning the tournament by three strokes with a gutsy four days of fine golf. Tiger Woods did a good job, in view of his five-month absence from competition, finishing fourth, although he is catching flak for an outburst of profanity after publically saying he would try to control his temper. Tiger is only human (how well we have seen that these lasr few months!), but he has put himself in a position where every minute he is under a microscope of public examination and will be held to the most exacting behavioural standards. Maybe that's not fair, but that's how it is when you screw up bigtime. At least he seemed to make a conscious effort to relate to the public. Mickelson is a case study of courage, which Hemingway defined as "grace under pressure", and Tiger could do well to emulate his example.

As for Big Ben, to put it mildly, he is suffering from an image problem of epic proportions after his latest sexual encounter. A talented quarterback with infinite talent and future possibilities, he keeps heading down the path of self-destruction blindly and willfully. In his short sports life, to reckon with a life-threatening motorcycle accident where he defied his football contract and endangered his life and to be involved in two sexual abuse incidents within a year (even if he was not charged criminally) is self-destructive behaviour, almost willful self-damage. I hope the Rooney family, owners of the Steelers, or Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, really sock it to him in a suspension. I also think he needs serious counseling in ethical behaviour to cure his addiction to reckless and thoughtless actions. The warning bell has sounded, and it is deafening.

Of course, we sports fans are guilty of creating monsters in our sports heroes. We cultivate and distort the old Vince Lombardi truism, 'Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing", so that sports heroes begin to think they are not subject to the same ethical standards as we ordinary mortals. All I can think of are the wistful lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel: "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, a hungry nation yearns for you", or days of yore when sports heroes quietly let their accomplishments speak for them and went about their business of performance. (Joe DiMaggio had his celebrity time in the limelight when he married Marilyn Monroe, but even his subsequent divorce was relatively quiet.)

Even sports heroes need to be held responsible for their actions and are accountable. It is an obvious fact we keep forgetting.

THANK YOU, SARAH!

Well, I see that that wizard and authority on foreign affairs (among other talents), Sarah Palin, has denounced the Obama nuclear policy. If ever I would construe a reason to support Obama in his nuclear policy, Sarah's pronouncements would seal the deal. It is of course part of her plan in keeping her name and persona before the public to make known her ideas on everything. Maybe that's good, and people will have the opportunity to see how little she knows and how specious her judgement is.

The whole Republican campaign of being anti-Obama on any issue continues. It is like a reflexive tic: Obama proposes, the G.O.P. reacts negatively. It would be a refreshing change to witness some serious effort by the Republicans so that political differences could be discussed rationally, quietly and soberly for the good of the country.

So, keep mouthing off, Sarah, you may be doing the rational world a favor by seeing your real worth as a political expert.